It’s almost assured that in any on-line dialogue a few recreation of the ‘rogue’ style, not less than one sweaty individual will eagerly emerge from the woodwork to say, “Effectively, ackshually, this recreation is a roguelite, not a roguelike.” Eyerolls apart, the excellence isn’t with out advantage, although ‘pure’ roguelikes are comparatively uncommon lately regardless of the recognition of lots of their mechanics in fashionable video games. Shiren the Wanderer: The Thriller Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island—the newest mainline launch within the long-running Thriller Dungeon franchise—is a roguelike, and it unashamedly options all of the thrilling randomization and savage brutality that you can anticipate of 1. We’re pleased to report that it executes on its unflinching design brilliantly, offering a tricky, partaking, and addictive expertise that you just gained’t wish to miss (in the event you like roguelikes).
The narrative of Shiren ‘6’ follows the titular wanderer and Koppa, a speaking ferret who accompanies him on his adventures. The 2 of them each acquired visions in a dream a few mysterious treasure mendacity within the abdomen of a strong beast on Serpentcoil Island, so that they head there to see if the legends are true. In a moderately fascinating twist, we then leap ahead to the very finish of their journey, proper in the course of their climactic battle with the monster. Shiren takes a blow to the pinnacle in the course of the battle that offers him amnesia and although he and Koppa battle bravely, they’re ultimately overwhelmed by the creature and awaken in a close-by village. Keen for an additional crack on the beast, and in an try and jog his foggy reminiscence, Shiren and Koppa set out once more to retrace their steps and, hopefully, succeed.
The narrative clearly isn’t the sturdy go well with right here, however we loved how bits and items are trickled to you over many runs to maintain you invested. Nearly each time you go to a village or lookout level alongside your path to the highest you’ll get one other cutscene advancing the arc of no matter characters are native to that area, supplying you with one thing to sit up for on return journeys. Plus, ultimately you may have a number of of those characters be a part of you as non-obligatory celebration members when you progress their subplots far sufficient, which helps to maintain the storytelling feeling related to the gameplay. Shiren 6 is, in fact, very a lot a gameplay-first expertise, however there are many charming interactions alongside the way in which to assist maintain subsequent runs from getting too dry.
Gameplay in Shiren 6 follows the acquainted Thriller Dungeon template that’s remained largely unchanged for almost 30 years. You begin each run at stage one with no objects or cash, and must trawl via flooring after flooring of randomly generated, grid-based dungeons in quest of the steps or exit that’ll take you to the subsequent one. Alongside the way in which, you’ll battle hordes of enemies, decide up cash and consumable loot you discover on the bottom, and take a look at to not step on any traps as you’re employed your manner down. Within the very doubtless likelihood that you just die, Shiren will lose all ranges, cash, and loot he gained and get despatched again to the beginning village to start out it throughout.
Fight is dealt with by way of a easy turn-based system the place time solely steps ahead one tick each time you both take an motion or transfer ahead one tile. Regardless of the simplicity, there’s numerous technique that goes into combating foes, as you’re continuously having to guage danger in the way you strategy a battle. It could make extra sense to run right into a hallway so you may battle a gaggle of enemies one after the other, however then what if one other group of enemies comes at you from the opposite aspect and bins you in? You could possibly destroy this powerful foe immediately through the use of a magic scroll in your stock, however you then gained’t have every other offensive objects left in your stock for dealing with different enemies on this flooring.
This cautious analysis of your choices is a part of the attraction of Shiren 6, as there’s numerous complexity to navigate with all its varied interlocking programs. That is the sort of recreation that you just make extra progress in not due to advancing metaprogression programs (there actually aren’t any right here), however by constructing a deeper understanding of issues like advantageous merchandise interactions and find out how to exploit enemy weaknesses. Shiren 6 could also be uncompromising, however it’s constant, and your failures paired with an honest quantity of trial and error will usually educate you find out how to flip conditions to your benefit.
Regardless of the considerably off-putting problem, there’s an impressively addictive high quality to the gameplay of Shiren 6 that retains you coming again. No two runs will ever be the identical, and the punishment can typically be overcome by a stroke of luck. For instance, we had a run the place we found a sword and defend early on that synergized with one another and gained a number of ranges once they had been each geared up, which allowed Shiren to steamroll the primary dozen flooring of the principle dungeon. Then again, your luck can flip towards you simply as simply and successfully finish your run. Typically, you’ll step on an invisible entice that destroys your tools or in any other case cripples you in some vital manner.
One would suppose that having such unfair, random bouts of unhealthy luck could be discouraging, and it partially is, however you might have the potential of being ‘rescued’ by on-line gamers in the event you request assist, though it’s a must to look forward to them to return via for you in the event you do. Nonetheless, this lifeline not less than helps to melt the blow of instantly shedding a run, plus you may all the time select to later pay it ahead and go rescue somebody your self in change for some useful goodies to enhance your future rescue runs. Even when a savior doesn’t present up for you and also you’re compelled to start out over, subsequent runs nonetheless really feel worthwhile due to the story occasions you unlock every time via, to not point out entry to shortcuts which shorten the size of your journey again to the place you had been. Like in lots of different roguelikes, then, dying in Shiren 6 actually stings, however there are some welcome methods to reduce how a lot it does so.
The one actual criticism that we’ve got towards Shiren 6 is that it falls into the identical repetitive cycles which are typical of video games on this franchise. Although dungeons are visually distinct from one another, it doesn’t take lengthy earlier than it begins to really feel like flooring are indistinguishable from one another as a result of utilizing the identical recycled enemies and belongings. That mentioned, this challenge is a little much less noticeable in Shiren 6 as a result of its tendency to introduce a small village or lookout level each few flooring the place you may freely roam, discuss to NPCs, and top off on provides. These can present a refreshing break from an excessive amount of dungeon crawling, and their relative frequency signifies that one normally pops up nearly at that time that you just’d like to start out seeing one thing completely different.
As for its presentation, Shiren 6 trades the earlier sprite-based artwork model for 3D visuals that reminded us vaguely of these in Bravely Default II. Characters and enemy designs are represented by a squat, virtually chibi-like design, whereas villages are inclined to appear like little toy dioramas. In the meantime, the dungeons sustain some good visible variety for all of the biomes, as you go to varied caves, forests, and seashores that each one keep on with distinct colour palettes. All of it appears fairly good, if slightly primary, with the one actual disappointment being that animations are moderately stiff.
To pair with this, the soundtrack employs a really earthy, winds-based model that feels prefer it suits properly with the mysterious and adventurous tone. Admittedly, the music tends to be slightly forgettable—there weren’t very many tracks that jumped out to us as being noticeably sturdy—however we had been general happy with the consequence right here and felt it continued properly from the work current in Shiren 5.
Conclusion
It could have taken over ten years to lastly come out, however Shiren the Wanderer: The Thriller Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is a brand new high-water mark for the storied roguelike franchise. Its masterful mix of uncompromising problem with a wealth of content material to beat makes for a recreation that’ll simply maintain you glad for dozens of hours as you study its methods. Mix that with some cool on-line options and an enthralling artwork model, and also you’ve acquired a recreation that’s a simple suggestion for any roguelike followers on the market. It is a powerful nut to crack, however the expertise is properly value it.